CSU Faculty Union Negotiations Proceed to Fact-Finding

A state mediator has notified the California State University and the
California Faculty Association that bargaining will now proceed to the
fact-finding stage under the impasse resolution procedures of the Higher
Education Employer/Employee Relations Act (HEERA).

A three-member fact-finding panel will convene a hearing, probably within
the next month, when evidence will be presented on any issues that continue
to be in dispute. The panel will then issue a report recommending settlement
on the outstanding issues.

"We're disappointed to have reached this point. The CSU has been working
very hard with the CFA to negotiate an agreement," said Jackie McClain,
CSU vice chancellor for human resources. "The issue that has brought us
to this point is the faculty union's insistence on discontinuing the merit
pay program in their current contract. While the CSU remains willing to
work with the union to revise the program, the CSU also remains committed
to merit pay as an important way to reward outstanding faculty performance.'"

The merit pay program was agreed to by the CFA and is in their current
contract, which doesn't expire until July 2001. The program takes 40 percent
of the salary increase pool and uses those funds to award outstanding
faculty achievement. The CFA's proposal is that all of the funds for merit
pay be redirected toward salary increases for all faculty with no awards
based on outstanding performance.

The CSU and CFA have been bargaining since February, and since May the
CFA has not altered its proposal. In July an impasse was declared, and
the CSU and CFA jointly requested and were granted the assistance of a
state mediator to facilitate the collective bargaining process. The CFA,
CSU and the mediator met three times, but an agreement could not be reached.

In their current contract, the CFA and the CSU agreed to request a six-percent
faculty salary increase in the 2000/01 state budget. The CSU secured the
funding and offered a total increase of six percent. If the CFA accepted
the six- percent increase, the cumulative CSU full-time faculty salary
increase over the past three years would be 18.8 percent. The six percent
increase would raise the average CSU full-time faculty salary to more
than $70,200, and raise the average for full professors, who make up about
two-thirds of the full-time CSU faculty, to more than $80,500.

This year's six- percent increase includes a 2.65 percent service salary
increase, which about a third of the faculty receive, based on years of
service and satisfactory performance. As required by HEERA the CSU has
continued with the status quo regarding compensation programs until the
impasse concludes. In compliance with HEERA regulations, the CSU on August
15 directed campuses to begin the process for distributing the service
salary increases.

The CSU has ratified tentative agreements for 2000/01 compensation with
eight of its ten employee bargaining units. The five unions, which together
represent about 15,000 CSU employees, are:

Union of American Physicians and Dentists, Unit 1, about 135 employees.

Merit pay is included in the contract of every one of these unions, and
is also part of the salary increases for non-represented CSU employees,
including executives. In addition, the California Postsecondary Education
Commission, an independent organization that studies California Higher
Education, uses a group of 20 universities nationwide to compare CSU faculty
salaries. Every one of these institutions has a merit pay program.